Alternative Spring Break 2015
Each year, up to 16 students from Pace University’s New York City and Pleasantville campuses are selected to participate in the annual Alternative Spring Break program with a focus on a specific issue. This year’s ASB will be a continuation of the past two years, with volunteers working on post-disaster recovery to help fellow New Yorkers who are still struggling to rebuild after the devastating impacts of Superstorm Sandy.
Why Sandy?
New York City still hasn’t fully recovered from the horrors of the Superstorm Sandy that took place in the fall of 2012 due to the vast magnitude of the storm. Here is an overview of the impact of Superstorm Sandy in numbers:
366,000 structures were damaged in New York City- 1,514,147 in New York had lost power
- In June 2014, over 15,000 New Yorkers were still living in damaged houses or paying rent on top of a mortgage as they waited for rebuilding help.
- Areas hit by Sandy are still affected by the loss of homes.
What’s Alternative Spring Break?
Alternative Spring Break is a unique opportunity for students who want to contribute their time toward helping impacted families. ASB does more than expose participants to volunteerism; students also learn about the core components of the issues through educational means such as panel discussions, hearing from activists/speakers, watching documentaries, and taking part in interactive simulations.
Alternative Spring Break allows students to critically think about the issue in hand and witness the challenges that are being faced by the affected community members. Afterward, students take their ASB experience and further disseminate the information by sharing their knowledge with classmates, professors, friends and family members.
You become part of something larger than yourself and something like putting down a floor or putting up a wall becomes more than construction; it becomes something to truly be proud of. – Charles Rehberger, ASB ’14
Still not convinced that Alternative Spring Break is for you? Read blog posts from last year’s participants here to learn more about their experiences, and view photos and updates from the trip here.
That was us – (fifteen) students of different campuses, majors, backgrounds, interests, and even cutting techniques coming together, staying together, and (most importantly) working together. – Ashley Lora, ASB ’14
Info Session Details:
In order to take part in ASB, all interested students must attend one of our mandatory information sessions. We will be going over the application procedure in detail.
Date: Wednesday, February 4th / Tuesday, February 10th
Time: 12:10PM-1:10PM / 3:30PM-4:30PM
Location: E319 (NYC) / Miller 16 (PLV)
RSVP: Email CCARNY@pace.edu or CCARPLV@pace.edu with your name, email, and the date of the session you are interested in attending, or RSVP on Facebook (2/4 or 2/10)
Any questions can be directed to ccarny@pace.edu (NYC) or ccarplv@pace.edu (PLV).
